Celebrity chefs are trying to make undercooked pork fashionable. But could it kill you?

Celebrity chefs are trying to make undercooked pork fashionable. But could it kill you?

When David Thorne walked into the doctor’s surgery to have his eyes examined, the doctor asked if he’d just been on holiday.

‘He thought I looked tanned,’ says David, 74. ‘It seemed quite a bizarre question as it was the middle of February and I hadn’t been anywhere hot.’

Then during his examination, the doctor also noted that David’s eyes had a yellow tinge.

'New' disease: You can catch hepatitis E by eating undercooked pork

‘My wife Pat and I hadn’t noticed anything, but when he pointed it out we could see it,’ says David.

He was immediately referred to a jaundice clinic near his home in Treliske, Cornwall, where tests confirmed that the problem was hepatitis E.

This is one of a family of viral diseases. Hepatitis B and C are better known and affect many hundreds of thousands of people in Britain. But although few will have heard of it, hepatitis E is on the rise, and experts are concerned that it is often going undiagnosed.

Each type of hepatitis has a different cause, but all attack the liver, causing inflammation. The symptoms vary, but hepatitis E can cause jaundice.

One of the liver’s jobs is to process bilirubin, a waste product formed from old red blood cells.

If the liver isn’t working properly, bilirubin builds up in the blood, leading to the characteristic yellow hue.

The worry is that the disease puts patients at risk of severe liver damage or cirrhosis, where the liver becomes scarred and is unable to function, leading to liver failure, which can be fatal.

Though hepatitis E can be transmitted through blood transfusions and by eating contaminated shellfish, experts say that the main culprit is pigs — around 85 per cent of swine have been infected with the virus.

By coming into contact with pig waste - perhaps through a contaminated water supply - or eating undercooked pork, many people are unknowingly contracting the disease, says Dr Harry Dalton, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust, and one of the country’s leading experts on hepatitis E.

‘The source and route of hepatitis E infection are uncertain, but the most convincing evidence suggests that it is an infection derived from pigs,’ he says.

On trend: Gary Rhodes' pork tenderloin with cabbage recipe suggests the pork be cooked until it's 'still pink and moist in the middle'

There are reports of vets and other pig industry workers with a high prevalence of hepatitis E antibodies, indicating they’ve come into contact with the virus.’

Last year, Dr Dalton’s team highlighted the case of a 59-year- old Cornwall resident who died of liver failure after contracting hepatitis E.

His job involved hosing down equipment using pond water filled by a stream from an adjacent pig farm.

Another possible method of transmission is through eating undercooked pork. ‘Pork should be cooked thoroughly and stored, handled and prepared properly, as recommended by the Food Standards Agency,’ says Dr Dalton.

‘What certainly doesn’t help is the trend of some celebrity chefs, who suggest that pork tastes better when it’s undercooked and still pink in the middle. This is potentially hazardous to human health.’

For instance, Gary Rhodes’ pork tenderloin with cabbage recipe suggests the pork be cooked until it is ‘still pink and moist in the middle’.

So how common is this ‘new’ disease? Scientists have discovered that 16 per cent of blood donors in South-West England have antibodies to the virus, meaning they have come into contact with it at some point.

The disease is rife in the developing world, but it is increasingly common in Britain. As many as 800,000 people in England alone have the infection, according to the Health Protection Agency, with the vast majority unaware of it. ‘The problem is that hepatitis E in developed areas such as Britain is often misdiagnosed,’ says Dr Dalton.

‘A side-effect of many drugs is damage to the liver, and this is what might be blamed for the patient’s condition, rather than hepatitis E.’

Misdiagnosis is ‘particularly common in elderly people who are most likely to be taking a lot of medication’.

While the causes of hepatitis E virus infection are to be investigated in a new study funded by the Prince of Wales’s Duchy Health Charity, David Thorne has little doubt about how he caught the disease - eating his favourite meal of underdone pig’s liver. SAYS: ‘Pat and I probably eat pig’s liver every three weeks and I have to admit that we do like it slightly undercooked because it tastes so much nicer,’ he says.

Fortunately, because David is in good health, he was told his prognosis is good. ‘Dr Dalton told me go home, rest and drink plenty of water — there was no other treatment. Within a few weeks, the jaundiced look began to disappear and I was given the all-clear.

‘We’ve decided to stop eating pork liver. But if you can’t eat it the way you like it there isn’t much point anyway.

‘Fortunately, the local rare breed pork is very tasty, so that’s some consolation.’